


First Place

by piggybackride (mssileas)



Series: Hayseed and Farmer [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Farmer!AU, Fluff, Hayseed Junkrat | Jamison Fawkes, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 14:44:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14854748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mssileas/pseuds/piggybackride
Summary: “I’m not taking you into town,” Mako says, shaking his head.“Why not?!” the scarecrow wails. “It’s ascarecrow competition, we need to participate! There’s no way we’ll lose to to those limp bags of straw, Mako! Look!”





	First Place

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I'm back with the Good Feelings (TM), because Hayseed is such a loveable strawboy and that's really the whole reason behind this. Thank you [Silly](http://sillyscrunchy.tumblr.com/) for editing. :*
> 
> Enjoy!

It’s still early in the morning, the birds are welcoming the rising sun with their song. The chickens slip out of their house one by one, rustling their feathers and beginning to cluck about, and Mako enjoys the peace and quiet out on his porch, sipping from a cup of steaming hot tea while sorting through the weekly mail. He pretends not to notice the light steps behind him, though it is impossible not to hear the mismatched ‘pad-thud-pad-thud-pad-thud’ with which Hayseed moves. 

They have a rule for this. Before the sun is fully up, the chatty scarecrow is not allowed to talk. Or bother Mako in any other way, though they have very different ideas of what ‘bothering Mako’ means. He’d say, standing so close behind him he can basically feel the scarecrow breathe - yes it breathes, very silently, but it does - that would count as being a pain in the ass already. Hayseed would not only disagree, he’s even taking it a step further, bending over Mako’s sitting form until his covered head comes to rest on the big man’s shoulder. 

Mako can smell the jute bag and fresh straw and something underneath that he can never quite place - like every animal has a specific smell, Hayseed has one too. It’s not human, though close enough, and Mako never likes to ponder it for too long. Everything about the scarecrow is rustling, too, and the farmer sighs in exasperation. “What do you want, Hayseed?” he gives in and asks.

“What is this?” the scarecrow asks, his broken voice grating against Mako’s ear, and a concerningly pale hand points to a flyer that has caught his attention between all the important mail. 

Mako frowns when he pulls it out and then has to smile despite himself. Of course that would interest Hayseed. 

_Annual Scarecrow Festival_ is printed on a bright yellow page - Hayseed can’t read, but he could probably identify the drawing of another scarecrow on the flyer. “It’s some town event with a scarecrow crafting competition or something,” Mako explains, already dismissing the flyer to open an actual bill instead, but he feels Hayseed go rigid behind him. He closes his eyes and slowly counts down from ten, just waiting for whatever’s on the scarecrow’s mind to burst out of him. He makes it all the way down to six. 

“Then we need to go!”, Hayseed cheers, excitedly hopping around the farmer’s breakfast table - he’s so light the sway in his steps makes it look like he’s dancing. But hey, at least Mako got a total of five calm minutes today before it was filled again with Hayseed’s happy blabbering, anecdotes, and songs, most of which the scarecrow only remembers parts and snippets he simply repeats until Mako threatens to strangle him. He’s not even sure if that would work, seeing as the scarecrow probably isn’t _really_ alive, but it’d be worth a try. 

“I’m not taking you into town,” Mako says, shaking his head. 

“Why not?!” the scarecrow wails. “It’s a _scarecrow competition_ , we need to participate! There’s no way we’ll lose to to those limp bags of straw, Mako! Look!”

Mako does look, with raised eyebrows, over the edge of his cup, as Hayseed demonstrates something he barely ever does: standing perfectly still. It is an eerie change, Mako has to give him that. He’s even sure Hayseed has stopped breathing. His chest isn’t moving, only the wind pulls at his worn, washed-out clothes and the straw ponytail. Upright and with his arms spread out - though unevenly, because he does not have a replacement for the missing half of his right arm - Hayseed is actually an imposing figure. 

The farmer sighs as he leans back and takes in the demonstration. Hayseed is doing such a good job at freezing where he stands, Mako actually flinches when suddenly the scarecrow’s head tilts and breaks its posture. He huffs as if to mask his reaction, though he can feel the glee radiating from the cursed puppet. “Very impressive - now do that for a whole day and I’ll think about it,” he says. 

Like that, the scarecrow is back to his floppy old self, spinning dramatically on his peg leg and letting his body fall right into Mako’s lap. There’s not enough weight to him to make it painful or uncomfortable, and Mako can feel Hayseed’s giggle vibrate through his whole, light body. “Makoooo,” he croons. “I’ll behave, I promise! No moving, no talking, I’ll be quiet as a mouse, I _swear_! And then we’re gonna win a prize!”

It’s always ‘we’. ‘We’ should go to the festival. ‘We’ should participate in the competition. ‘We’ will win a prize. It’s quite difficult to say no to Hayseed that way, especially when the stitched mouth and the lens eyes that make for his face seem to look at him so expectantly. “I said I’ll think about it,” he insists again. 

Four days later, he’s lifting the scarecrow up on the back of his truck, trying to drown out the happy chatterbox Hayseed turned into ever since Mako agreed to let him compete. 

There’s no harm in it, he tells himself. Hayseed knows he can’t show himself to people and it doesn’t hurt Mako’s reputation with the town folk if he shows up for such events occasionally. Never a better time to reach out to the community, and no farmer can live without the support of the people in their region. 

-

It’s strange being among so many people - actually living people - with Hayseed in his company. He’s so used to Hayseed moving and talking, even though Mako knows a scarecrow isn't technically supposed to do so, it’s weird to feel how lifeless he is in his arms now. The competition is more a fun event than actual serious business. People have gotten creative with their scarecrows, but most of them barely resemble human shapes. They're mostly discarded rags, funny hats and bright buttons for eyes. It makes Hayseed stick out far more than Mako anticipated, but he receives a lot of curious looks and compliments for his scarecrow when he puts him up on a post. Hayseed is so still it’s almost frightening. 

The more the marketplace fills with people, though, the less Mako can think about him. There’s hands to shake and smalltalk to make and a whole lot of local product samples to try and Hayseed really does not seem inclined to send the masses into hysteria by freeing himself from his post. Which he can, Mako has seen him do it. 

It’s the kids who are most intrigued by the scarecrow. It looks stunningly close to a human, and that frightens them and sparks their curiosity at the same time. Mako watches with a smile at how they start arguing among each other who’d be the first one brave enough to touch him - a little girl, maybe seven or eight years old, declares all her friends cowards and steps forward. Before she can get close enough, however, there’s a sense of dread making her stop. Mako knows that feeling, too. He still doesn’t know if Hayseed does this intentionally — Mako doesn’t even know exactly what _it_ is. It feels like a barrier that won’t allow you to come too close to the scarecrow. It’s nothing physical. Just the feelings that your legs won’t carry you a step further and that it’d be wise not to try to fight this sensation. 

It doesn’t apply to Mako anymore, though. He walks up to the scarecrow, looking down at wide, curious eyes in the kids’ faces. “You don’t have to be afraid, he’s just a puppet. Come here,” he says, gesturing for them to come closer. The girl steps forward again, pushing out her chin defiantly. 

“I know that,” she says, as if to mask her own fear and pretend she hadn’t just backed down. She’s still hesitant when she carefully puts a hand on Hayseed’s knee, but then smiles triumphantly over her shoulder at her friends. Then she eyes up the scarecrow curiously before frowning at Mako. “Why does he not have an arm?”

Mako shrugs. “He doesn’t really need it, does he?”

That answer doesn’t seem to satisfy her. “He doesn’t need a leg either.”

He has to chuckle. Kids have no qualms to correct you upfront about something that doesn’t make sense to them. He doubts any of the adults have questioned why he has only made Hayseed a leg replacement. “You’re right. I should probably get him a hand too.”

She nods in satisfaction. “I’m sure my dad could help you, he’s really the best at carving wood!” the girl says, with all the trust and confidence in her father’s skill only a child could have. 

“Maybe I’ll ask him then,” he agrees. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Kelly.”

He extends his hand to her. “Good to meet you, I’m Mako.” Her hand is tiny in his and she laughs at that. Her eyes flicker up to the burlap Hayseed’s makeshift face is sewn into. 

“Does he have a name, too?”

“That’s Hayseed.”

She grins. “I like that! I think Hayseed will win, he’s the scariest of all of them!”, she exclaims, and Mako knows she’s right. Technically, the lovingly created but weirdly shaped scarecrows around them are no competition for Hayseed in that regard. 

Kelly’s right indeed. 

Hayseed receives a pretty golden badge and Mako a basket of local delicacies and by the time the sun sets and he lifts Hayseed back on the truck, he’s talked to more people in one day than he has in the past six months. 

“Bye Mako! Bye Hayseed!” The girl waves at them when he slowly drives past her, waving back at her and her mother through the window. Her mother turns away to continue a conversation she’s having on the phone - and then Hayseed’s restraint finally breaks. He lifts his hand and waves at Kelly too in the tiniest movement and Mako can see the girl’s face drop almost to the ground through his rearview mirror. 

It looks too comical for Mako not to laugh, and they’re out of sight before he can see what she’ll tell her mother as soon as she recovers from the shock. It won’t matter - no one would believe a small girl that the scarecrow could wave at her intentionally. He can hear Hayseed’s laughter over the rumbling of the engine. 

He’s barely out of the truck, parked in front of the farmhouse again, before Hayseed swings himself from the loading space, jumping at Mako and wrapping all his gangly limbs around the farmer’s broad form. “I told you we would win!” he cheers, and Mako pats his back affectionately. “I did really good, Mako, didn’t I? Told you I could behave!”

“Almost,” Mako weighs in, walking up to his house with an excited, shivering Hayseed clinging to him. He's not really complaining though, almost relieved to feel the creature move and breathe again after going hours with no sign of life in it. The scarecrow giggles. 

“No one saw but her,” he argues, and then pats nervously at Mako’s shoulder. “Will you really make me a hand?!”

The farmer sighs. He doesn’t see what an unmoving wooden hand would do Hayseed any good. It’s not like he could use it or needs it like the peg leg. But really, it’s not like he can’t spare the few hours it’s probably gonna take to carve out a nice hand and arm to attach to the rest of Hayseed. “Fine. Because you’ve done a good job today.” His face scrunches up when Hayseed hollers his triumph right into his ear, but there’s a smirk on Mako’s face somewhere underneath, and really, there are worse things in the world than a happy Hayseed.

**Author's Note:**

> Tada!
> 
> Thank you guys for reading!
> 
> Let me know what you think in the comments or hang out on my [tumblr](https://piggyofoz.tumblr.com/)! (NSFW tumblr version [here](https://piggyofoz-nsfw.tumblr.com/).)


End file.
